I had some time on my hands so downloaded a half dozen or so distros to compare to the pre beta of vector 7.1. On this old box Vector pre beta is better than a half dozen released distros on the distrowatch 100. Vector connects easily, is customizable, runs well on under a gig of ram, plays my media, and includes fluxbox and awesome

mint is slow on this box and less customizable, elementary would not give me a desktop but has a nice wallpaper, lite allowed me to customize but would not play my media, salix would not connect, solydx was nice live but installed lost the desktop icons and became unstable, xubuntu was.. well ubuntu, archbang was to simplistic but worked well, gnewsense could not get connected.

Each had a few issues on this old box as does vector but 7.1 is pre beta and the others are released and higher on the chart. just goes to prove the listing is relative.

although a quick test for ease of connectivity, ability to do a similar customization, ability to play sample media, and general stability during, vector won this round.

I gotta say I am rather excited about the upcoming release of Vector 7.1 beta.

A previous fluxbox fan I am really impressed with xfce this time.

..really looking forward to it.

I'm certainly looking forward to it also! Unfortunately, I'm not a dev,...and can't download and test (still on dialup, alas.)But I'm a very enthusiastic end-user. Been using Vector since version 5.9,....and it still works great on my 3 older computers. Here's to version 7.1 beta.

nitehawk..Ya I am still babying the hardware modems with the rockwell chipsets I used on 5.9, another reason to love Vector. I noted that the chestnut dialer is in the repository for 7.1, I installed the package and it appears fine to but am currently on cable so cannot test it out. Cheers to another great one in the works.

Have it on both cd and floppy but it offers additional functionality. I am using it to boot Vector beta from a third partition, with loader to the partition, it does not effect the current install and loader. The bios does not offer the option on this old unit. I also use it on an older unit to boot the usb port and run a portable os as it does not have the option to boot usb and has no hard drive. Anyway, I found it handy.

one reason is its flexability. I just installed mint16 mate on one of the toys and man what a pain..no root..I really had to be on my terminal toes to do anything. vector is so much easier in that regard. I can see the value in the direction but like a little more freedom to mess things up myself personally. and no xmms pkg, I was lost.

Vector is also usually not so dramatic..mint had caja cascades covering the desktop and no stopping the repeats..and I have no idea why. I had to turn it off. so came back to the b1..love that little V button..and...and..right, cheers

Have it on both cd and floppy but it offers additional functionality. I am using it to boot Vector beta from a third partition, with loader to the partition, it does not effect the current install and loader. The bios does not offer the option on this old unit. I also use it on an older unit to boot the usb port and run a portable os as it does not have the option to boot usb and has no hard drive. Anyway, I found it handy.

Thanks for that report. I can see it being really handy for booting from USB drives on older machines.

The first download item is a zip that includes required java. I simply extracted the folder, opened it and double clicked the application. the 3D is sketchy on my low end hardware but did very well and works fine in 2d. worth a look if you like that sort of thing. here is a screenshot